Leaderboard

Seriously just because you don't like something you don't have to keep telling everyone about it at every opportunity. We ALL know already. I may think the E36 M3 is the ugliest looking car ever made but you don't see me shouting about it at every opportunity. Similarly I may think you are an incompetent home mechanic and shouldn't be working on cars at all for screwing up a simple Vanos job following a well written instruction from the web. The reality is we all like different things and appreciate different aspects of our cars and those of others. I am here to share knowledge and help others if I can, not to put down other peoples' choices - they have their own reasons for purchasing and driving whatever they like - who are you to cheapen other peoples' choices? Be a little more respectful. The reality is also a lot of these "issues" are well known now and many have workable solutions or fixes or are sufficient enough to prolong the car till its end of life (nothing lasts forever people) - so just pick carefully and enjoy it.

'HELLM3' is coming up to 170000 k`s. SMG and we do our best to break it but it refuses to die. Give me SMG any day over manual (unless it`s an S62 powered 8M3)

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/535i/auction-692491202.htm What a beauty!!

throw it in the bin where it belongs.

A 540i would beat it

And probably upped the value of main st houses in Lawrence when it died there...............

by owning an e30! i really am! i DROVE the parts car back from qtown to lawrence (where it blew the head gasket and died) on the friday before v8s... the POS was pink stickered, almost scraping and missing the rear bumper... with the right rear corner half repaired with fiberglass... with 18"chromes... passed TEN cops, not even pulled over once!

NICE! With that thread title, I was expecting to see a 520i auto "M5" with a bonnet scoop and flyscreens hot glued into the kidneys etc..... Actually... speaking of Kidneys - selling one would almost pay for that!

Tyres removed from my 17's and I am dropping them off to Thorpe Engineering on the way to work in the morning so that they can be machined out from 72.6mm to 74.1mm Next update will probably be 2 weeks away as from tomorrow I have to work 12 days straight, incl Waitangi Day, but it also means 24 hours of over time, which will be handy.

Couldn't have said it better myself. As with anything, you can break any car by running it to red line from stone cold day in and day out and then claim that it was a shitty engine and post all over the Internet about it. The SMG is no different and no worse than your average manual. In fact it's probably better than all the manual M3s out there. Many of these cars would have seen multiple owners now and I doubt all of them can shift as seamlessly as Aryton Senna. The SMG cars on the other hand you can almost guarantee the gearbox (if regularly re-adapted and reset) will be as good as new. The fact that you often only ever see SMG cars replace pumps and other ancillaries and not the actual gearbox due to worn synchro is testament to how well designed these systems are. $20K for a new gearbox vs $2.5K for a new pump, I'd take the pump each and every time. I have had 2 conventional manual E46 M3s from brand new and one SMG and I would take the SMG car each and every time without hesitation. At least the DME in the SMG cars aren't programmed to have the 0.5second delay on power delivery like the conventional manuals do.

That was me in the red e39. A total fluke that I saw you guys! I promise Nelson isn't actually that small haha. They're actually Beyern wheels but cheers for the compliment!

My comments around rust were stereotyping... Should have put a 'wink' smiley after it. The Singaporean issues are similar - look after the car and it doesn't matter. That said, my understanding is that Singaporean cars rarely get to stretch their legs hich can't be a good thing in the long term. My diesel gets choked up on the run to Hamilton because it's only turning at 2000rpm most of the time. Take each car on it's individual merits. I owned Alfa Romeos that didn't rust... Sometimes it's not just care, but down to manufacturing quality control, too. Or luck.

Finding one is the hardest part. The last manual one i bought at $1500 and sold it for $1200, was rugged exterior wise but drove\handled well even at 450,000km I agree. E34's in general don't tend to have rust issues anyway.

i dont know why people always assume that. A bit like the Singapore electrical issues. Sure there are some, enough to make the connection, but it doesnt mean they are all like that. My wagon is a UK import, was there for 6 years before coming here, no rust on it at all, and the only rust that ever has been taken out of it was around the windscreen from a poor windscreen replacement, nothing to do with salty roads. I've had a few UK E30s too, and while i dont know the history as well, there was no rust on those either.

They have pole mounted revenue collectors............ Most locals know where they are though...........

does the service manual being wrapped up and mint mean they havent serviced the car? would rather a dirty manual and mint car than the other way around. would be a good car with a manual box (though not an m5) but im not sure i could bring myself to live wth blue leather, would make me feel like a pornographer.

Do a skid. Oh wait, 318.

aka the 'best' island, & its south of Cook Strait..............

Google hit counts are great like that. 86000 e46 m3 build yet 250k of them are having smg problems ? Its a Shame you've scared yourself buying one. You've missed out on owning a great car.According to the internet I'm going to die next week from 2,500,000 million different diseases, the sis is watching all my bimmersport postings and there is an alien air bass deep down south At the cricket last night. Across the group we'd owned 5 smg cars. One had the dreaded smg $30 relay problem. Of the four m3s none had the subframe problem.That was it. I guess the good thing about the smg fud is we'll be able by these cheaper than the manuals in future Seriously though, if anyone is in the market for an smg m3 talk to people that have owned them. If you go by the internet it sounds like they are all failing smg pumps its not like that at all.

1995 Daihatsu Mira 850cc 3 cylinder. Mine sounded AWESOME! My Cappuccino was better, as it revved SO much higher (though I only ever got a bit over 8), but not "relatively common" - last I knew there were 32 registered in NZ, and the guy who brought mine has 4! Shame my Wagon R turbo was 4 cylinder - sounded boring. The Subaru EZ30's do sound great... That's why one's going in the VW bus next

Jules, please take this the right way. Will you stop faffing about with pretty bits and bolt the supercharger on?

No. You need 51mm strut housings to fit 51mm struts. If you have 45mm ones you need to change the entire strut.

you could even buy my little pony seat covers for it